The introduction of a new penal code has left Portuguese justice in a shambles, says gibby zobel |
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T
he immediate fate of Kate and Gerry McCann has been confused by the introduction 10 days ago of a controversial new penal code which is so obscure that Portuguese police, magistrates and lawyers are still trying to interpret it.
Two things are certain, however, both of which are frustrating for the British couple whose daughter Madeleine disappeared nearly 150 days ago: first, that police tactics used against them earlier this month are now banned, and, second, the couple do not have the right to see the evidence against them.
Changes in the Codigo de Processo Penal have caused a "collective hysteria" in Portugal, with TV specials and acres of newsprint devoted to what the changes mean. A media flurry ensued when, because of a loophole in the new code, more than 100 remand prisoners were
released on September 15.
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| Magistrates, police and the judiciary have not had time to understand the the new law |
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"Nobody knows how to apply the new code," shouted the headline in the
respected daily Publico last week. "Magistrates, police and the
judiciary have not had time to understand the basic concepts of
the new law."
It didn't help that the new code was published only 11 days before it came into force. "[It is] a very Portuguese characteristic to prepare for things after they've happened," says the weekly Expresso columnist Miguel Sousa Tavares, a lawyer-turned-journalist.
One aspect of the code that everyone can understand is that marathon interrogation sessions by police are banned. Such sessions are now limited to four hours at a time. Gerry McCann was questioned once for 13 hours, his wife Kate for 11.
Telephone bugging, thought to have been used to monitor calls between the McCanns and their friends, is also banned under the new code.
"These things were designed to give investigators the easiest
and weakest of proofs: the automatic criminalisation of an 
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